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Updated: Jul 17, 2026

Formation of Ordered Biomolecular Structures by the Self-assembly of Short Peptides
Published on: November 21, 2013
Gas-phase spectroscopy of biomolecular building blocks
Mattanjah S de Vries1, Pavel Hobza
1Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry, University of California, Santa Barbara, CA 93106, USA. devries@chem.ucsb.edu
Abstract:
Gas-phase spectroscopy lends itself ideally to the study of isolated molecules and provides important data for comparison with theory. In recent years, we have seen enormous progress in the study of biomolecular building blocks in the gas phase. The motivation for such work is threefold: (a) It is important to distinguish between intrinsic molecular properties and properties that result from the biological environment. (b) Gas-phase spectroscopy of clusters provides insights into fundamental interactions and into microsolvation. (c) Gas-phase data support quantum-chemical calculations. This review focuses on the current status of (poly)amino acids and DNA bases. Recent results help elucidate structure and hydrogen-bonded interactions, as well as showcase a successful interplay between theory and experiment.
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